Encapsulated accelerator

• US 10,572,417 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2017
• Issued: 02/25/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pope, Steven L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilles, Jude Jean
• Application Number:
  US15/455,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20170185549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-207, 709212-214, 709237, 710113
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/28 using burst mode transfer, e.g. direct memory access DMA, cycle steal G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/362 with centralised access control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0058 Bus-related hardware virtualisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/3808 Network interface controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2212/00 Encapsulation of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9068 in the network interface card

Abstract

A data processing system comprising: a host computer system supporting a software entity and a receive queue for the software entity; a network interface device having a controller unit configured to provide a data port for receiving data packets from a network and a data bus interface for connection to a host computer system, the network interface device being connected to the host computer system by means of the data bus interface; and an accelerator module arranged between the controller unit and a network and having a first medium access controller for connection to the network and a second medium access controller coupled to the data port of the controller unit, the accelerator module being configured to: on behalf of the software entity, process incoming data packets received from the network in one or more streams associated with a first set of one or more network endpoints; encapsulate data resulting from said processing in network data packets directed to the software entity; and deliver the network data packets to the data port of the controller unit so as to cause the network data packets to be written to the receive queue of the software entity.

Claims

1. A network interface device comprising:

one or more ports for connecting to at least one network, said one or more ports configured to receive at least one network data packet; and

an FPGA configured to perform at least one process with respect to data in at least one received network data packet and to encapsulate data resulting from said processing into at least one network data packet for delivery to at least one application running on a host device to which said network interface device is connected in use.

2. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said network data packets comprise Ethernet frames.

3. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said network data packets comprise internet protocol packets.

4. A network interface as claimed in claim 1, wherein said FPGA is addressable as a network endpoint.

5. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said FPGA is configured to process said data on behalf of the at least one application running on the host device.

6. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, comprising a data bus interface that is configured to connect said network interface device to said host device.

7. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the FPGA is configured to perform to parsing the received network data packets so as to identify network messages carried therein that have one or more of a set of characteristics.

8. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the FPGA is configured to receive at least one network data packet via said at least one network from a remote electronic exchange, at least one data packet comprise financial messages.

9. A data processing system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said FPGA is configured to process the financial messages so as to generate normalized financial data.

10. A network interface device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said FPGA is configured to perform one or more of:

normalisation of financial information carried within financial messages of the received network data packets;

serialisation of trades carried within financial messages of the received network data packets and directed to an electronic exchange;

arbitration between financial message streams of the received network data packets;

decompression or compression of data packet headers of the received network data packets;

analysis of scientific data carried within of the received network data packets;

processing of digital audio and/or video data carried within the received network data packets; and

in-line cryptographic functions performed on data carried within the of the received network data packets.

14. A network interface as claimed in claim 1, wherein said FPGA is addressable as a network endpoint.

11. A network interface device comprising:

an FPGA configured to receive at least one received network data packet from at least one application running on a host device to which said network interface device is connected in use, perform at least one process with respect to data in at least one received network data packet, and to encapsulate data resulting from said processing into at least one network data packet; and

one or more ports for connecting to at least one network, said one or more ports configured to receive at least one network data packet from said FPGA and output said at least one network data packet from the FPGA onto said network.

12. A network interface device as claimed in claim 11, wherein said network data packets comprise Ethernet frames.

13. A network interface device as claimed in claim 11, wherein said network data packets comprise internet protocol packets.

15. A network interface device as claimed in claim 11, comprising a data bus interface that is configured to connect said network interface device to said host device.

16. A network interface device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the FPGA is configured to perform to parsing the received network data packets so as to identify network messages carried therein that have one or more of a set of characteristics.

17. A network interface device comprising:

one or more ports for connecting to at least one network, said one or more ports configured to receive at least one network data packet; and

an FPGA configured to perform at least one process with respect to data in at least one received network data packet and to encapsulate data resulting from said processing into at least one network data packet for delivery to said one or more ports for output onto said at least one network.

18. A system comprising:

a host device comprising at least one application; and

a network interface device comprising;

one or more ports for connecting to at least one network, said one or more ports configured to receive at least one network data packet; and

an FPGA configured to perform at least one process with respect to data in at least one received network data packet and to encapsulate data resulting from said processing into at least one network data packet for delivery to at least one application running on said host device.

19. A system as claimed in claim 18 wherein said host application is configured to communicate with said network interface device via sockets.

20. A system as claimed in claim 18, wherein said encapsulated data is routed from said network interface device to a respective network endpoint at said host device.

21. A system as claimed in claim 20, wherein said respective network endpoint at said host device is one of an Ethernet address and an internet protocol address.

22. A system comprising:

a host device comprising at least one application; and

a network interface device comprising;

an FPGA configured to receive at least one received network data packet from at least one application running on said host device, perform at least one process with respect to data in at least one received network data packet, and to encapsulate data resulting from said processing into at least one network data packet; and

one or more ports for connecting to at least one network, said one or more ports configured to receive at least one network data packet from said FPGA and output said at least one network data packet from the FPGA onto said network.

23. A system as claimed in claim 22, wherein said encapsulated data is routed from said host device to a respective network endpoint at said network interface device.

24. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein said respective network endpoint at said network interface device is one of an Ethernet address and an internet protocol address.

25. A system as claimed in claim 22, wherein said host application is configured to communicate with said network interface device via sockets.