Modular interconnect structure

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of first devices, a plurality of second devices, and a plurality of third devices;
• a first plurality of connector circuits coupled in series to form a first interconnect branch to transfer messages among the first devices, a second plurality of connector circuits coupled in series to form a second interconnect branch to transfer messages among the second devices, and third plurality of connector circuits coupled in series to form a third interconnect branch to transfer messages among the third devices;
• and
• a crossbar to transfer messages among the interconnect branches, the crossbar including a plurality of connector circuits and a plurality of transfer paths coupled among the connector circuits of the crossbar, wherein each of the connector circuits in each of the crossbar, the first interconnect branch, the second interconnect branch, and third interconnect branch includes a first port, a second port, a third port, and a number of connector paths to transfer messages between any two of the first, second, and third ports.

A system comprising:

• an interconnection to transfer data with multiple disks;
• and
• an integrated circuit chip coupled to the interconnection to transfer data with the multiple disks, the integrated circuit chip including an interconnect structure coupled to a plurality of the devices, the interconnect structure including:
• plurality of multi-drop pipelined interconnections, each of the multi-drop pipelined interconnections coupled to a group of devices of the plurality of devices, each of the multi-drop pipelined interconnections including a plurality of branch connector circuits coupled in series to allow the group of devices to exchange messages via the branch connector circuits, each of the branch connector circuits including multiple ports, and multiple connector paths coupling the multiple ports to transfer messages among the multiple ports, and
• a crossbar coupled to the interconnect branches to transfer messages between the group of devices coupled to one of the multi-drop pipelined interconnections and the group of devices coupled to another one of the multi-drop pipelined interconnections.

A method comprising:

• transferring a first message between a first device and a first interconnect branch, the first interconnect branch including a plurality of branch connector circuits coupled in series, wherein the first message is transferred through a selected branch connector circuit of the branch connector circuits;
• transferring the first message between the second interconnect branch and a second interconnect branch via a crossbar;
• and
• transferring the first message between the second interconnect branch and a second device, the second interconnect branch including a plurality of branch connector circuits coupled in series, wherein the first message is transferred through a selected branch connector circuit of the branch connector circuits of the second interconnect branch, and wherein the selected branch connector circuit of each of the first and second interconnect branches includes a first port, a second port, a third port, and a number of connector paths to transfer the first message among the first, second, and third ports.