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US 5,513,376 AGranted
Method of operating an extension FIFO in another device when it is full by periodically re-initiating a write operation until data can be transferred
AssigneeNational Semiconductor Corporation
InventorMichael G. Lohmeyer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A configurable network interface controller provides a multi-chip FIFO extension protocol. Utilizing this protocol, FIFOs that are physically separated (e.g., in separate chips) can be made to operate as though they are a single FIFO.
Claims3
A method of operating first and second physically separated first-in, first-out (FIFO) memory devices as a single FIFO, the method comprising:
- connecting the first and second FIFO memory devices for transfer of data characters therebetween;
- initiating write operation for transfer of data characters from the first FIFO memory device to the second FIFO memory device;
- and
- in the event that the second FIFO memory device is full, providing a write retry signal from the second FIFO memory device to the first FIFO memory device that causes the write operation to be aborted, the first FIFO memory device responding to the write retry signal by periodically re-initiating the write operation until transfer of the data characters from the first FIFO memory device to the second FIFO memory device is accomplished.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.