Method and apparatus for a pipelined network

A computer system coupled with a pipelined network comprising:

• a plurality of initiator nodes coupled to send packets, into the network;
• a plurality of target nodes coupled to receive packets sent into the network;
• a plurality of pipeline stages for transmitting data across the network, each pipeline stage consuming a predetermined time period, thereby providing for a predetermined time period for transmission for each packet successfully sent between one of the initiator nodes and one of the target nodes wherein the pipeline stages include an arbitration stage, a transfer stage, an acknowledge stage, the stages being in a fixed time relation to each other;
• arbitration logic coupled to the initiator nodes, the pipelined network, and the target nodes, the initiator nodes supplying requests to the arbitration logic for transmission of respective packets to respective target nodes during respective arbitration stages, the arbitration logic responsive to the initiator node requests to schedule packet transmission across the network,
• wherein for a particular transfer, the arbitration logic is coupled to receive an indication from a particular target node for the particular transfer as to whether the particular transfer can be supported in the particular target node.

A method for transmitting information across a pipelined computer network, comprising:

• transmitting the information from an initiator node to a target node using a plurality of pipeline stages in the computer network, each pipeline stage having a fixed forwarding delay;
• overlapping an operation in one pipeline stage with another operation in another pipeline stage;
• requesting a path through the network from the initiator node to the target node during an arbitration stage from arbitration logic, the arbitration logic communicating with the target node to determine if the target node can accept a packet from the initiator node;
• sending at least one data packet containing the information from the initiator node to the target node during one or more transfer stages;
• and
• sending an acknowledge packet containing status of receipt of the data packet from the target to the initiator during one or more acknowledge pipeline stages;
• wherein during the arbitration stage, the arbitration logic provides a grant indication to the initiator node to indicate that the initiator node can transmit the packet during a subsequent transfer stage.

A method for transmitting information across a pipelined computer network, comprising:

• transmitting the information from an initiator node to a target node using a plurality of pipeline stages in the computer network, each pipeline stage having a fixed forwarding delay;
• overlapping an operation in one pipeline stage with another operation in another pipeline stage;
• requesting a path through the network from the initiator node to the target node during an arbitration stage from arbitration logic, the arbitration logic communicating with the target node to determine if the target node can accept a packet from the initiator node;
• and
• scheduling usage of the network using an arbiter in response to requests from initiator nodes to allocate each stage of the pipeline so as to avoid conflicts for network resources.