Starvation-free arbitration policies for the segmented-bus platform

In this study, the authors discussed the communication aspects concerning a segmented bus platform. Placed somewhere midway between the classical system bus and the network on chip approaches, the segmented bus architecture provides performance improvements in comparison with the first, while employing a much simpler communication structure and algorithm than those thought for the second. The focus is on the arbitration policy exercised at the level of the central arbiter. A new solution for this policy that avoids the starvation symptoms of the present version while preserving the overall performance of the original platform was presented.