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US 2002/0176429 A1Published application
Apparatus, method and limited set of messages to transmit data between scheduler and a network processor
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsJean Louis Calvignac, Marco Heddes, Joseph Franklin Logan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An interface to interconnect Network Processor and Scheduler chips in a multi-chip system includes a limited set of messages and circuit arrangements to generate the limited set of messages. The messages include FlowEnqueue.request, FlowEnqueue.response, PortEnqueue.request and PortStatus.request.
Claims20
A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
- generating in a chip a flow Enqueue.request message having an identification field for carrying indicia to identify a message type, a correlation field carrying a correlator to associate one message with another;
- a frame control block address (FCBA) field to carry a value to be used to reference a packet, a flow queue ID (identification) field to carry a queue number that indicates which flow queue the packet should be placed in, and a discard action field to carry discard information;
- inserting appropriate data in selected fields;
- and
- transmitting the message with the appropriate data.
2 more elements
A device for transporting information comprising:
- a message handler unit including a generator that generates a FlowEnqueue.request message having an identification field for carrying indicia to identify a message type, a correlation field carrying a correlator to associate one message with another;
- a frame control block address (FCBA) to carry a value to be used to reference a packet, a flow queue ID (FQID) to carry a queue number that indicates which flow queue the packet should be placed in, and a discard action field to carry discard information.
A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
- generating, with a transmit controller, a PortStatus.request message having at least a message ID field to carry information identifying the message and port status field to carry information indicating current fill levels of transmit queues;
- loading said PortStatus.request message with appropriate data;
- and
- transmitting said loaded PortStatus.request message.
1 more element
A device for transporting information including:
- a transmit controller that generates a PortStatus.request request message having a message type ID field to carry information identifying the message;
- and
- a port status field to carry information indicating current filing levels of transmit queues.
A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
- generating a FlowEnqueue.response message having a message ID field to carry information identifying the message;
- a correlator field to carry a correlator and discard acknowledge field to carry a code indicating action taken relative to a packet;
- loading said FlowEnqueue.response message with appropriate data;
- and
- transmitting the loaded FlowEnqueue.response message.
2 more elements
A device for transporting information comprising:
- a flow enqueue controller that generates a FlowEnqueue.response message having a message ID field to carry information identifying the message;
- a correlator field to carry a correlator and discard acknowledge field to carry a code indicating action taken relative to a packet.
A method to communicate including the acts of:
- generating a PortEnqueue.request message having at least message ID field to carry information to identify the message, a frame control block address field to carry information referencing a packet and a port queue ID value specifying in which port queue the packet should be placed;
- loading the PortEnqueue.request message with appropriate data;
- and
- transmitting the loaded PortEnqueue.request message.
1 more element
A device for transporting information comprising:
- generator for generating a PortEnqueue.request message having at least message ID field to carry information to identify the message, a frame control block address field to carry information referencing a packet and a port queue ID value specifying in which port queue the packet should be placed.
A Network Processor including:
- a receiver controller;
- a data store memory controller operatively coupled to the receive controller;
- a chip-to-chip interface controller;
- a dispatcher operatively coupled to the data store memory controller;
- a plurality of receive queues coupling the receive controller and the dispatcher;
- a completion unit operatively coupled to the chip-to-chip controller;
- EPC coupling the completion unit and the dispatcher;
- a data store access controller coupling the EPC to the data memory controller;
- a plurality of transmit queues operatively coupled to the chip-to-chip interface controller;
- and
- a transmit controller operatively coupled to the transmit queues, data store memory controller and chip-to-chip interface.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.