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US 9,807,034 B2Granted
System and method for creating a scalable monolithic packet processing engine
AssigneeAltera Corporation
InventorHartvig Ekner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A novel and efficient method is described that creates a monolithic high capacity Packet Engine (PE) by connecting N lower capacity Packet Engines (PEs) via a novel Chip-to-Chip (C2C) interface. The C2C interface is used to perform functions, such as memory bit slicing and to communicate shared information, and enqueue/dequeue operations between individual PEs.
Claims24
A packet engine system for processing a packet, the system comprising:
- a first packet engine that includes a first buffer system and a second packet engine that includes a second buffer system, wherein the first packet engine includes an interface coupled to the second packet engine;
- wherein the first packet engine slices the packet into bit slices stores a first portion of the bits slices and distributes a second portion of the bit slices to the second packet engine using the interface without using switch fabric;
- and
- wherein the first buffer system and the second buffer system form a bit-sliced memory of the packet engine system, the first buffer stores the first portion of the bit slices and the second buffer stores the second portion of the bit slices.
1 more element
A method for processing a packet, the method comprising:
- slicing the packet into bit slices using a first packet engine of a plurality of packet engines of a monolithic packet engine system, wherein the plurality of packet engines comprise an interface;
- storing a first portion of the bit slices in a first buffer system of the first packet engine;
- distributing a second portion of the bit slices to a second packet engine of the plurality of packet engines of a monolithic packet engine system using the interface without using a switch fabric;
- storing the second portion of the bit slices in a second buffer system of the second packet engine;
- and
- enqueuing the packet comprising the first portion and the second portion of the bit slices.
3 more elements
A system comprising a plurality of packet engines of a monolithic packet engine system, a first packet engine including:
- an interface coupled to a second packet engine;
- and
- a buffer system,
- wherein the first packet engine slices a packet into bit slices, stores a first portion of the bit slices in the buffer system and distributes a second portion of the bit slices to a second packet engine without using a switch fabric over the interface;
- and
- wherein the first packet engine reads the bit slices from the second packet engine, and enqueues the packet comprising the first portion and the second portion of bit slices using a network egress interface included in one of the first and second packet engines.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.