US 7,733,892 B2 · Buffer management method based on a bitmap table

Abstract

A buffer management method based on a bitmap table includes: dividing the bitmap table into a plurality of areas each containing at least one bit; determining and recording an idleness status of each of the areas in accordance with an unoccupied status of the bit in the area; and performing a management on a buffer address pointer in accordance with the recorded idleness status of each of the areas. The entire inventive procedure of allocating a buffer address pointer is fixed and easily controllable, and the RAM consumed for management on each buffer element including at least a 1-bit buffer space is approximately 1 bit, with a relatively fewer resources being consumed. The invention can enable that it takes two clock cycles on average to complete one procedure of allocating a buffer address pointer, and thus the efficiency in allocating and reclaiming a buffer address pointer is high, and the controllability during buffer management is improved. In the case that as a few as possible resources are consumed, the capability in buffer management is improved to a maximal extent, and hence the inventive can satisfy the demand of a large bandwidth for a large buffer.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A buffer management method based on a bitmap table, comprising:

determining and recording an idleness status of each of plurality of areas in a bitmap table in accordance with an unoccupied status of a bit in each of the area;
obtaining an address of an idle area of the bitmap table from a First In First Out queue, wherein the bitmap table is a table with n rows;
the bitmap table is divided into n areas in unit of row of the bitmap table;
and row addresses of the bitmap table are respectively the address of each of the areas, the addresses of the idle areas are stored in the First In First Out queue, and a depth and a width of the First In First Out queue are n and m respectively, and if log2n is an integer, m=log2n, otherwise m=(int(log2n)+1);
n and m are positive integers;
obtaining a bit in an unoccupied status in the idle area corresponding to the address of the idle area;
obtaining an buffer address pointer corresponding to the bit in an unoccupied status;
and
allocating the buffer address pointer to a data frame.

6 more elements

A device, comprising:

one or more components for allocating a buffer address pointer based on a bitmap table, the one or more components configured to
determine an address of an idle area of a plurality of areas in the bitmap table;
look up for a bit in an unoccupied status in the idle area according to the address of the idle area and determine an address of the bit;
obtain the buffer address pointer corresponding to the address of the bit and allocate the buffer address pointer;
wherein the bitmap is divided into the plurality of areas in unit of row of the bitmap table, the idle area contains at least one unoccupied bit;
an address of an unoccupied bit in the bitmap table corresponds to address pointer of an unoccupied buffer, the addresses of the idle areas are stored in a First In First Out queue;
the bitmap table is a table with n rows;
and a depth and a width of the First In First Out queue are n and m respectively, and if log2n is an integer, m=log2n, otherwise m=(int(log2n)+1);
n and m are positive integers.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Buffer management method based on a bitmap table

Life of this patent

Buffer management method based on a bitmap table

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18