Tightly-coupled, loosely connected heterogeneous packet based transport

A heterogeneous packet-based transport system, comprising:

• a distributed switch that receives a plurality of packets from a root complex, contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, the first protocol including specification of one or more packet types, the distributed switch including:
• a first port, connected to a first root complex, that includes a plurality of transmit buffers, the first port performing the following:
• adds a sequence number to each packet in the plurality of packets, the sequence number added to each packet in the plurality of packets being different from the sequence number for every other packet in the plurality of packets,
• identifies a packet type for each packet in the plurality of packets, performs address normalization for every packet in the first plurality of packets;
• inserts all the packets from the plurality of packets along with added sequence numbers into a plurality of transmit buffers so that each transmit buffer from the plurality of transmit buffers only holds packets of one packet type,
• wherein for each transmit buffer in the plurality of transmit buffers, each packet inserted into the transmit buffer is encapsulated, including a sequence number for the packet, into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol;
• a second port, connected to a second root complex, that includes a plurality of receiver buffers,
• a receiver buffer from the plurality of receiver buffers receiving the at least one packet organized in accordance with the second protocol as sent from the transmit buffer, the receive buffer receiving packets of only one packet type, the receive buffer receiving packets of a same packet type that is held by the transmit buffer,
• wherein the second port disassembles the at least one packet organized in accordance with the second protocol to recover the packet inserted into the transmit buffer, including a sequence number for the packet,
• the second port performing address translation for all the packets from the first plurality of packets,
• the second port ordering all the packets from the first plurality of packets such that each packet from the plurality of packets is in order relative to the sequence number added to the packet, and
• the second port deciding based on a flow control counter for each packet type whether to send each packet in the plurality of packets to an endpoint, or whether to wait.