Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant software transparent and high data integrity extension to a backplane bus or interconnect
AssigneePLX Technology, Inc.
InventorJack Regula
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Abstract
The disclosure relates to apparatus and methods that provide a system interconnect for transporting cells between nodes on a dual counter-rotating ring network, including a link selection register for selecting the shortest path to a destination node, use of a fault tolerant frequency reference to synchronize node clocks, interconnect initialization, multi-ring topologies along with an addressing schema and ring-to-ring couplers. The disclosure also discusses flow control of cells leaving nodes, coupling cells from one ring to another, and use of such an interconnect as a bus replacement.
Claims15
A method for implementing a system interconnect having a plurality of nodes, said interconnect for transporting a cell from a source node on a ring network to a destination node on said network, said network having a first path and a second path, one of said plurality of nodes being a configuration node, said method comprising steps of:
- (a) initializing said plurality of nodes;
- (b) emitting onto said first path, by said configuration node, a first identifying address sequence containing a configuration node address;
- (c) receiving from said first path said first identifying address sequence by a second node;
- (d) modifying said configuration node address contained in said first identifying address sequence to create a second node address;
- and
- (e) emitting onto said first path, by said second node, a second identifying address sequence containing said second node address.
A method for implementing a system interconnect having a plurality of nodes, said interconnect for transporting a cell from a source node on a ring network to a destination node on said network, said network having a first path and a second path, one of said plurality of nodes being a configuration node, another of said plurality of nodes being a backup configuration node, said method comprising steps of:
- (a) initializing said plurality of nodes;
- (b) starting a timer;
- (c) determining at expiration of said timer that said backup configuration node has not received any identifying address sequence;
- (d) emitting onto said first path, by said backup configuration node, a first identifying address sequence containing a configuration node address;
- (e) receiving from said first path said first identifying address sequence by a second node;
- (f) modifying said configuration node address contained in said first identifying address sequence to create a second node address;
- and
- (g) emitting onto said first path, by said second node, a second identifying address sequence containing said second node address.
A system interconnect apparatus having a plurality of nodes, said apparatus for transporting a cell from a source node to a destination node on a ring network having a first path and a second path, one of said plurality of nodes being a configuration node, said apparatus comprising:
- an initialization mechanism configured to initialize said plurality of nodes;
- a first emitting mechanism in said configuration node configured to emit a first identifying address sequence containing a configuration node address onto said first path;
- a first receiving mechanism, in a second node, configured to receive from said first path said first identifying address sequence;
- an address modification mechanism, in said second node, configured to modify said configuration node address contained in said first identifying address sequence to create a second node address;
- and
- a second emitting mechanism, in said second node, configured to emit onto said first path a second identifying address sequence containing said second node address.
A node for use in a system interconnect, said interconnect for transporting a cell over a ring network, said network having a first path and a second path, said node including:
- a node initialization mechanism configured to initialize the node responsive to a reset condition;
- a first receiving mechanism, responsive to the node initialization mechanism, configured to receive from said first path a first identifying address sequence;
- a node address generation mechanism configured to use said first identifying address sequence to create a node address;
- and
- an emitting mechanism, responsive to the node address generation mechanism, configured to emit onto said first path a second identifying address sequence.
A configuration node for use in a system interconnect, said interconnect for transporting a cell over a ring network, said network having a first path and a second path, said node including:
- a node initialization mechanism configured to initialize the configuration node responsive to a reset condition;
- a node address generation mechanism configured to generate a configuration node address responsive to the node initialization mechanism;
- an emitting mechanism, responsive to the node address generation mechanism, configured to emit onto said first path a first identifying address sequence, and
- a reception mechanism configured to receive a subsequent identifying address sequence, said subsequent identifying address emitted by a second node after emission of said first identifyig address sequence by the emitting mechanism;
- a node number determination mechanism configured to determine a number of nodes on said network from said subsequent identifying address sequence;
- and
- a link selection register initialization mechanism configured to initialize a link selection register (LSR) to indicate which of said first path and said second path is a preferred path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.