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AssigneeAlacritech, Inc.
InventorsLaurence B. Boucher, Stephen E. J. Blightman, Peter K. Craft, David A. Higgen, Clive M. Philbrick, Daryl D. Starr
Estimating the term…
An intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) works with a host computer for data communication. The device provides a fast-path that avoids protocol processing for most messages, greatly accelerating data transfer and offloading time-intensive processing tasks from the host CPU. The host retains a fallback processing capability for messages that do not fit fast-path criteria, with the device providing assistance such as validation even for slow-path messages, and messages being selected for either fast-path or slow-path processing. A context for a connection is defined that allows the device to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The context can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The device contains specialized hardware circuits that are much faster at their specific tasks than a general purpose CPU. A preferred embodiment includes a trio of pipelined processors devoted to transmit, receive and utility processing, providing full duplex communication for four Fast Ethernet nodes.
A system, comprising:
A protocol accelerator integrated circuit that operates in conjunction with a processor, the processor executing a network protocol stack, the protocol accelerator integrated circuit receiving a first network communication from a network at substantially the same time that it outputs a second network communication to the network, the first network communication including a TCP header and an IP header, the second network communication including a TCP header and an IP header, the protocol accelerator integrated circuit comprising a pipeline of processors, the pipeline of processors including a receive processor and a transmit processor, the receive processor performing protocol processing on the first network communication such that the network protocol stack performs substantially no TCP protocol processing on the first network communication and such that the network protocol stack performs substantially no IP protocol processing on the first network communication, the transmit processor performing protocol processing on the second network communication such that the network protocol stack performs substantially no TCP protocol processing on the second network communication and such that the network protocol stack performs substantially no IP protocol processing on the second network communication.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.