A method and apparatus for supporting heterogeneous agents in on-chip
busses. In one embodiment, the method includes the detection of a bus
arbitration event between at least a first bus agent and a second bus
agent. In one embodiment, a bus arbitration event is detected when at
least the first bus agent and the second bus agent assert their
respective bus request signals in a single clock cycle. Once a bus
arbitration event is detected, bus ownership may be granted to both the
first bus agent and the second bus agent, when the first bus agent and
the second bus agent have different grant-to-valid latencies. In the
embodiment, heterogeneous bus agents may coexist on a bus without
requiring wasted or unused bus cycles following establishment of bus
ownership. Other embodiments are described and claimed.