US 7,689,757 B2Granted

Systems and methods for data transfer

AssigneeL-3 Communications Intergrated Systems, L.P.

InventorsJerry W. Yancey, Yea Z. Kuo

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Abstract

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (“ASIC”) devices, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (“FPGAs”), may be interconnected using serial I/O connections, such as high speed multi-gigabit serial transceiver (“MGT”) connections. For example, serial I/O connections may be employed to interconnect a pair of ASICs to create a high bandwidth, low signal count connection, and in a manner so that any given pair of multiple ASIC devices on a single circuit card may communicate with each other through no more than one serial data communication link connection step. A reconfigurable hardware architecture (“RHA”) may be configured to include a communications infrastructure that uses a high-bandwidth packet router to establish standard communications protocols between multiple interfaces and/or multiple devices that may be present on a single circuit card. Additionally, a communications infrastructure may be established across multiple circuit cards.

Claims28

Dependent claims

Circuitry comprising an ASIC device, said ASIC device comprising:

a packet router contained entirely within said ASIC device, said packet router having multiple reader interfaces configured as packet sources and multiple writer interfaces configured as packet destinations and being configured to determine a packet destination for a given data packet from a routing code contained in a header of said given data packet;
a first function or module coupled to a first reader interface and a first writer interface of said packet router, said first function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
and
a second function or module coupled to a second reader interface and a second writer interface of said packet router, said second function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
wherein said packet router is further configured to transfer data packets between said first function or module of said ASIC device and said second function or module of said ASIC device by:
receiving first data packets at said first reader interface of said packet router from said first function or module, determining a first destination of each of said received first data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said received first data packets, and transmitting said received first data packets from said second writer interface of said packet router to said second function or module based on said first destination determined from said routing code, and
receiving second data packets at said second reader interface of said packet router from said second function or module, determining a second destination of each of said received second data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said received first data packets, and transmitting said received second data packets from said first writer interface of said packet router to said first function or module based on said second destination determined from said routing code.

4 more elements

Circuitry comprising an ASIC device, said ASIC device comprising:

at least one packet router contained entirely within said ASIC device, said packet router having multiple reader interfaces configured as packet sources and multiple writer interfaces configured as packet destinations and being configured to determine a packet destination for a given data packet from a routing code contained in a header of said given data packet;
a first processor module or user function coupled to a first reader interface and a first writer interface of said packet router, said first function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
and
a second processor module or user function coupled to a second reader interface and a second writer interface of said packet router, said second function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
wherein said packet router interconnects said first processor module or user function of said ASIC device and said second processor module or user function of said ASIC device and is configured to:
determine a destination of first data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said first data packets and to transmit said first data packets from said second writer interface of said packet router to said second processor module or user function based on said destination determined from said routing code of said first data packets, and
determine a destination of second data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said second data packets and to transmit said second data packets from said first writer interface of said packet router to said first processor module or user function based on said destination determined from said routing code of said second data packets.

4 more elements

A method for data transfer, said method comprising transferring at least one data packet between a first function or module of an ASIC device and a second function or module of said ASIC device using a packet router of said ASIC device, said packet router being coupled between said first function or module of said ASIC device and said second function or module of said ASIC device;

wherein said packet router is contained entirely within said ASIC device, said packet router having multiple reader interfaces configured as packet sources and multiple writer interfaces configured as packet destinations and being configured to determine a packet destination for a given data packet from a routing code contained in a header of said given data packet;
wherein said first function or module is coupled to a first reader interface and a first writer interface of said packet router, said first function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
wherein said second function or module is coupled to a second reader interface and a second writer interface of said packet router, said second function or module being contained entirely within said ASIC device;
and wherein said method further comprises:
receiving first data packets at said first reader interface of said packet router from said first function or module, determining a first destination of each of said received first data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said received first data packets, and transmitting said received first data packets from said second writer interface of said packet router to said second function or module based on said first destination determined from said routing code, and
receiving second data packets at said second reader interface of said packet router from said second function or module, determining a second destination of each of said received second data packets from a routing code contained within a header of each of said received first data packets, and transmitting said received second data packets from said first writer interface of said packet router to said first function or module based on said second destination determined from said routing code.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.