Peripheral repeater box
AssigneeDigital Equipment Corporation
InventorBruce E. Newman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a system which includes a data transmitting device, a repeater, and a data receiving device, the repeater accumulating input data in packets from the transmitting device and retransmitting it to the receiving device, a memory structure for the data which includes a data buffer a receive queue having a plurality entries, each entry capable of storing the starting address of a packet in the data buffer in order of receipt, and a transmit queue for storing the starting addresses of packets for transmitting to said receiving device is provided in the repeater. In operation, only addresses are transferred from receive queue to transmit queue with the data remaining in the buffer. Preferably the buffer and queues are circular.
Claims26
In a system which includes a data transmitting device;
- a repeater;
- and a data receiving device, the repeater accumulating input data in packets from said transmitting device and retransmitting said packets to said receiving device, a memory structure for storing said data in said repeater comprising:
- (a) a data buffer;
- (b) a receive queue having a plurality entries, each entry capable of storing a starting address for the packets in said data buffer received from said transmitting device;
- (c) a transmit queue for storing the starting addresses of packets for transmitting to said receiving device;
- and
- (d) means to transfer said addresses from said receive queue to said transmit queue, each of said buffer and said queues being circular.
In a system which includes a data transmitting device;
- a repeater;
- and a data receiving device, a method of communication between the data transmitting device and the data receiving device comprising:
- (a) accumulating input data from said transmitting device at said repeater in a data buffer;
- (b) entering into a receive queue having a plurality entries, a starting address for the packets in said data buffer received from said transmitting device;
- (c) transferring said addresses from said receive queue to a transmit queue for storing the starting addresses of packets for transmitting to said receiving device;
- each of said buffer and said queues being circular and
- (d) retransmitting said packets to said receiving device.
A method of operating a memory device having a finite total amount of physical memory space in connection with at least one operating device and a central processing unit comprising the steps of:
- (a) allocating a preselected amount of said finite total amount of physical memory space, with a beginning and an end, for said at least one operating device;
- (b) selectively transmitting data from said at least one operating device to said central processing unit;
- (c) operating said central processing unit to transfer said transmitted data from said at least one operating device to within said preselected amount of physical memory space allocated for said at least one operating device until said central processing unit reaches the end of said preselected amount of physical memory space;
- (d) upon reaching the end of said preselected amount of physical memory space, further operating said central processing unit to continue to transfer said transmitted data, by transferring said transmitted data to the beginning of said preselected amount of physical memory space without interrupting transfer of said transmitted data, whereby causing said preselected amount of physical memory space and to be connected to the beginning thereby causing said preselected amount of physical memory space to be circular.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.