Switching with transparent and non-transparent ports

• US 20050117578A1
• Filed: 01/06/2005
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Topside Research LLC
• Inventors: Haywood, Chris, Stewart, Heath, de la Garrigue, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/309 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags

Abstract

There are disclosed apparatus and methods for switching. Transparent and non- transparent ports are provided. Data units are transferred between the transparent ports, between the transparent and non-transparent ports, and between the non-transparent ports.

Claims

1. A switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces comprising

a first physical interface for interfacing to a first device having a first address in a first shared address domain

a second physical interface for interfacing to a second device having a second address in the first shared address domain

a third physical interface for interfacing to a third device having a third address in a second address domain, wherein the second address domain is isolated from the first address domain

logic for switching data units between the first physical interface, the second physical interface and the third physical interface using mapped address I/O and masking the second address domain.

2. The switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces of claim 1 wherein the first address domain and the second address domain are selected from the group comprising memory address domains and input/output address domains.

3. The switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces of claim 1 wherein the data units are switched by the logic through one of direct memory translation with or without offsets, indirect memory translation through lookup registers or tables, a mailbox mechanism, and doorbell registers.

4. The switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces of claim 1 wherein isolation comprises separation such that interaction does not take place.

5. The switch with transparent and non-transparent ports of claim 1 wherein the third physical interface is selectable to interface to devices in the first address domain or the second address domain.

6. The switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces of claim 1 having plural transparent physical interfaces and plural non-transparent physical interfaces.

7. A system comprising

the switch with transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces of claim 1

a first processor having a first address domain and connected to the first physical interface

a second processor having a second address domain and connected to the third physical interface

wherein the first processor and the second processor can communicate with each other through the switch, and the switch masks the second address domain.

8. A process for switching data units, the method comprising

providing a switch having transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces

associating the transparent physical interfaces with a shared address domain

associating the non-transparent physical interfaces with non-shared address domains

obtaining translation offsets for the non-shared address domains

transferring data units between the transparent physical interfaces, between the transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces, and between the non-transparent physical interfaces.

9. The process for switching data units of claim 8 wherein transferring data units between the transparent and non-transparent physical interfaces comprises

receiving data units through the transparent physical interfaces which are addressed to devices coupled to the non-transparent physical interfaces, and transmitting the data units through the non-transparent physical interfaces to the addressed devices

receiving data units through the non-transparent physical interfaces which are addressed to devices coupled to the transparent physical interfaces, and transmitting the data units through the transparent physical interfaces to the addressed devices.

10. The process for switching data units of claim 8 comprising

receiving data units from the transparent physical interfaces and the non-transparent physical interfaces

storing the received data units in a buffer

determining destination addresses of the received data units

if the destination addresses correspond to devices coupled to the non-transparent physical interfaces, then translating the destination addresses to the non-shared address domain associated with the devices prior to transfer through the non-transparent physical interfaces

if the data units are received from transparent physical interfaces and the destination addresses correspond to devices coupled to the transparent physical interfaces, then transferring the data units through the corresponding transparent physical interfaces without translating the destination addresses.