Data flow engine

• US 20030061269A1
• Filed: 09/17/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: COPAN Systems, Inc. (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Flow Engines, Inc.
• Inventors: Hathaway, Michael W., McMillian, Gary Benton
• Application Number:
  US09/953,806
• Publication Number:
  US 20030061269A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4059 where the synchronisation uses buffers, e.g. for speed matching between buses

Abstract

A Data Flow Engine. The present invention presents, for the first time, a solution that removes a processor out of the traditionally known data plane. The use of a Flow Engine operates on data using object-oriented processing. The present invention also provides for a solution that may significantly reduce the requirements of very high bus widths to accommodate large data throughputs. The data (or portions of the data) may be stored in a data path and information is passed to a control plane to separate all or some of the memory management functionality from the processor. The present invention is scalable, enabling operation of any number of Flow Engines in a variety of configurations including embodiments that employ one or both of in-stream and out-stream processors and embodiments that employ daisy-chained control using processors.

Claims

1. A flow engine system, comprising:

a flow engine; and

a processor that is communicatively coupled to the flow engine; and

wherein the flow engine is operable to receive a first object via a first interface and to transmit a second object via a second interface;

the flow engine transmits a descriptor, that is associated with the first object, to the processor; and

the processor provides a command to the flow engine, the command comprising at least one of an object modification command and an object transmission command.

2. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the flow engine is operable to extract a portion of the first object, the portion comprising at least one of a bit, a bit field, a byte, and a byte field.

3. The flow engine system of claim 2, wherein the portion is passed to the processor for processing to generate a processed portion.

4. The flow engine system of claim 3, wherein the processed portion is passed back to the flow engine.

5. The flow engine system of claim 4, wherein the processed portion is inserted into the first object in place of the extracted portion;

and

wherein the second object comprises the first object and the inserted processed portion.

6. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the first object and the second object are the same object.

7. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the processor is aligned in an in-stream configuration with respect to the flow engine.

8. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the processor is aligned in an out-stream configuration with respect to the flow engine.

9. The flow engine system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional flow engine that is communicatively coupled to the flow engine.

10. The flow engine system of claim 9, further comprising at least one additional processor that is communicatively coupled to the at least one additional flow engine.

11. The flow engine system of claim 9, wherein the at least one additional flow engine is also communicatively coupled to the processor.

12. The flow engine system of claim 11, wherein the flow engine and the at least one additional flow engine are communicatively coupled to the processor in a daisy-chained configuration.

13. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the flow engine assigns the descriptor to the first object when the flow engine received the first object.

14. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the flow engine comprises a memory;

the first object is stored in the memory; and

the descriptor comprises a pointer to an address associated with a location in the memory where the first object is stored.

15. The flow engine system of claim 14, wherein the memory comprises at least two memory divisions;

one memory division of the at least two memory divisions is adapted for objects having a first size; and

one memory division of the at least two memory divisions is adapted for objects having a second size.

16. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the flow engine comprises a plurality of ports;

and

at least one of the ports within the plurality of ports comprises a control interface port for the communicatively coupling between the flow engine and the processor.

17. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the command that is provided to the flow engine from the processor comprises information concerning a destination where the second object is to be transmitted from the flow engine via the second interface.

18. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first interface and the second interface is communicatively coupled to at least one of a network interface circuitry and a fabric/host interface circuitry.

19. The flow engine system of claim 1, further comprising a tagging circuitry, in signal communication with the flow engine, that tags the first object before the first object is received via the first interface;

and

wherein the first object'"'"'s tag indicates an object type of the first object.

20. The flow engine system of claim 1, wherein the flow engine performs data inspection of the first object.

21. A flow engine system, comprising:

a flow engine that is communicatively coupled to a first interface and a second interface; and

a processor that is communicatively coupled to the flow engine; and

wherein the flow engine assigns a descriptor to an object when the flow engine receives the object from at least one of the first interface and the second interface;

the flow engine is operable to parse the object into at least one object portion;

the flow engine transmits at least one of the descriptors and the at least one object portion to the processor;

the processor is operable to identify at least one of processing operation and a transmission operation for the object, based on the descriptor; and

the processor provides a command to the flow engine, the command comprising at least one of an object modification command and an object transmission command.

22. The flow engine system of claim 21, wherein the processor performs data processing on the at least one object portion to generate a processed object portion;

and

the processor transmits the processed object portion back to the flow engine.

23. The flow engine system of claim 22, wherein the processor inserts at least one additional object portion into the at least one object portion to generate the processed object portion.

24. The flow engine system of claim 23, wherein the at least one additional object portion comprises at least one of a prepend byte and an append byte.

25. The flow engine system of claim 21, wherein the object modification command transmitted to the flow engine by the processor commands the flow engine to perform data processing on the at least one object portion to generate a processed object portion.

26. The flow engine system of claim 25, wherein the flow engine inserts at least one additional object portion into the at least one object portion to generate the processed object portion.

27. The flow engine system of claim 26, wherein the at least one additional object portion comprises at least one of a prepend byte and an append byte.

28. The flow engine system of claim 21, wherein the flow engine transmits the entire object to the processor.

29. The flow engine system of claim 21, wherein the command that is provided to the flow engine from the processor comprises information concerning a destination where the second object is to be transmitted from the flow engine via the second interface.

30. The flow engine system of claim 21, further comprising at least one additional flow engine that is communicatively coupled to the flow engine.

31. The flow engine system of claim 30, further comprising at least one additional processor that is communicatively coupled to the at least one additional flow engine.

32. The flow engine system of claim 30, wherein the at least one additional flow engine is also communicatively coupled to the processor.

33. The flow engine system of claim 32, wherein the flow engine and the at least one additional flow engine are communicatively coupled to the processor in a daisy-chained configuration.

34. The flow engine system of claim 21, wherein the flow engine comprises a memory;

the object is stored in the memory; and

the descriptor comprises a pointer to an address associated with a location in the memory where the object is stored.

35. The flow engine system of claim 34, wherein the memory comprises at least two memory divisions;

one memory division of the at least two memory divisions is adapted for objects having a first size; and

one memory division of the at least two memory divisions is adapted for objects having a second size.

36. A flow engine processing method, the method comprising:

receiving an object in a flow engine;

assigning a descriptor to the object using the flow engine;

storing the object in the flow engine;

passing at least a portion of the object from the flow engine to a processor, the processor is communicatively coupled to the flow engine; and

passing a command instruction from the processor to the flow engine concerning processing of the at least one portion of the object.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising parsing the object in the flow engine to generate the at least one object portion.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the at least one object portion comprises at least one of a bit, a bit field, a byte, and a byte field.

39. The method of claim 37, further comprising passing the entirety of the object to the processor.

40. The method of claim 36, further comprising retrieving an object from memory, the memory being located in the flow engine.

41. The method of claim 36, further comprising modifying the object using the at least one object portion in the flow engine.

42. The method of claim 36, further comprising modifying the object using the at least one object portion in the processor.

43. The method of claim 36, further comprising transmitting the object from the flow engine via an interface of the flow engine.

44. The method of claim 36, further comprising inserting at least one additional object portion into the object.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the at least one additional object portion comprises at least one of a prepend byte and an append byte.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein the at least one additional object portion is inserted into the object by the processor.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein the at least one additional object portion is inserted into the object by the flow engine.

48. The method of claim 36, further comprising modifying the at least one object portion in the processor to generate a modified object portion.

49. The method of claim 48, further comprising transmitting the modified object portion from the processor to the flow engine.

50. A flow engine processing method, the method comprising:

passing a command instruction from a processor to a flow engine concerning processing of at least one object portion, the processor is communicatively coupled to the flow engine;

retrieving an object from memory, the memory being located in the flow engine;

modifying the object using the at least one object portion in the flow engine; and

transmitting the object from the flow engine via an interface of the flow engine.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising receiving at least one additional object in the flow engine;

assigning a descriptor to the at least one additional object using the flow engine;

storing the object in the flow engine; and

passing at least a portion of the at least one additional object from the flow engine to the processor, the processor is communicatively coupled to the flow engine.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising passing the entirety of the object to the processor.

53. The method of claim 50, further comprising parsing the object in the flow engine to generate the at least one object portion.

54. The method of claim 50, further comprising inserting at least one additional object portion into the object.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the at least one additional object portion comprises at least one of a prepend byte and an append byte.