Interleaved access to address table in network switching system
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsShashank Merchant, John M. Chiang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A novel method of providing interleaved access to an address lookup table in a multiport communication system having a decision making engine for controlling data switching between receive and transmit ports. A source address (SA) lookup logic circuit and a destination address (DA) connected in a pipeline are enabled to alternately access the address table. An arbitration circuit provides the SA and DA logic circuits with automatic access to the address table in alternate time slots allocated to these logic circuits. Also, the arbitration circuit enables an aging circuit and a host processor to periodically access the address table in pre-selected time slots.
Claims19
A multiport data communication system for transferring data packets between ports, the data communication system comprising:
- receive ports for receiving data packets from a plurality of network nodes,
- a decision making engine responsive to the received data packets for controlling transmission of the received data packets to at least one selected transmit port,
- the decision making engine including:
- an address table storage for storing an address table having address information relating to the ports,
- first and second logic circuits interacting with the address table storage for processing data blocks representing the received data packets in accordance with a prescribed algorithm, and
- an interleaved address table access circuit for enabling said first and second logic circuits to alternately access the address table, wherein
- the interleaved address table access circuit comprises an arbitration circuit for providing the first and second logic circuits with access to the address table in alternate time slots allocated to the first and second logic circuits.
A multiport data communication system for transferring data packets between ports, the data communication system comprising:
- receive ports for receiving data packets from a plurality of network nodes;
- and
- a decision making engine responsive to the received data packets for controlling transmission of the received data packets to at least one selected transmit port,
- the decision making engine including:
- an address table storage for storing an address table having address information relating to the ports;
- first and second logic circuits interacting with the address table storage for processing data blocks representing the received data packets in accordance with a prescribed algorithm;
- and
- an interleaved address table access circuit for enabling said first and second logic circuits to alternately access the address table, wherein
- the address table storage is configured to have a single port for providing both the first and second logic circuits with access to the address table, and
- the interleaved address table access circuit comprises an arbitration circuit for providing the first and second logic circuits with access to the address table in alternate time slots allocated to the first and second logic circuits.
In a communication system having a decision making engine for controlling data switching between receive and transmit ports using an address table for storing address information relating to the receive and transmit ports, a method of providing access to the address table, comprising the steps of:
- processing data blocks representing received data packets by first and second logic circuits in accordance with a prescribed algorithm for controlling transmission of the received data packets to at least one selected transmit port, and
- enabling the first and second logic circuits to alternately access the address table,
- wherein
- the first and second logic circuits are assigned with alternate time slots for access to the address table.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.