External data interface in a computer architecture for broadband networks
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system comprising:
- an interface device operable to communicate data to and from an external device; and
a memory having a plurality of memory locations each operable to store the data, at least one of the interface device and the memory being operable to store status information associated with respective ones of the memory locations, the status information including a first field and an address field, such that, for a given memory location, when a value of the first field of the associated status information equals a first value, and a value of the address field of the associated status information equals a second value, a write operation to the memory location causes data currently stored therein to be written to an address represented by the second value.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system configuration includes a processing element (PE), an input/output (I/O) interface device and a shared memory. The PE further includes at least one processing unit (PU) and one, or more, attached processing units (APUs). At least one of the APUs performs an I/O function by reading data from, and writing data to, an external device coupled to the I/O interface device. Data is exchanged between the APU and the I/O interface device via the shared memory using a data level synchronization mechanism.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A system comprising:
-
an interface device operable to communicate data to and from an external device; and
a memory having a plurality of memory locations each operable to store the data, at least one of the interface device and the memory being operable to store status information associated with respective ones of the memory locations, the status information including a first field and an address field, such that, for a given memory location, when a value of the first field of the associated status information equals a first value, and a value of the address field of the associated status information equals a second value, a write operation to the memory location causes data currently stored therein to be written to an address represented by the second value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system comprising:
-
a memory having a plurality of memory locations;
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor operable to issue a request, the request having at least one of a first type and a second type; and
an interface device operable to transfer data from an external device to the memory for storage therein in response to receiving a request having the first type, and to transfer data from storage in the memory to the external device in response to receiving a request having the second type, wherein memory locations of at least one of the memory and the interface device support a number of different memory states including a blocking state, such that a write operation to a given memory location in the blocking state causes data currently stored therein to be written to an address value associated with the given memory location. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. Apparatus for interfacing between an external device and a processor, the apparatus comprising:
-
a protection table operable to store information indicating areas of a shared memory that are accessible by the processor;
a transfer controller responsive to a request from the processor to control a transfer of data between the external device and at least one of the accessible areas of the shared memory; and
a transfer path operable under control by the transfer controller to transfer the data between the external device and the at least one accessible area of the shared memory, the transfer controller being operable to control the transfer the data in a synchronized manner between a memory location of the at least one accessible area and the external device according to a current memory state of the memory location, such that when the current memory state is a blocking state, a write operation to the memory location causes data currently stored in the memory location to be written to an address associated with the memory location.
-
-
21. A method for transferring data between a processor and an external device, via an interface device, the method comprising:
transferring the data between the external device and a memory local to the processor through a shared memory having a plurality of memory locations, wherein the shared memory supports a number of different memory states including a blocking state, wherein a write operation to a given memory location in the blocking state causes data currently stored therein to be written to an address value associated with the given memory location. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
-
26. A device comprising:
-
a first bus for conveying a plurality of request/reply channels, each request/reply channel associated with a processor, each request/reply channel conveying requests for communicating data between the associated processor and an external device;
a second bus in data communication with a memory, for use in communicating the data using data level synchronization, the memory including a plurality of memory locations each supporting a number of different memory states including a blocking state, wherein a write operation of data to a given memory location in the blocking state causes the data currently stored in the given memory location to be written to an address value associated with the given memory location. - View Dependent Claims (27)
-
Specification